6 things I’m looking forward to when I return home

So after nearly a year away from home my return is finally in sight. I won’t say the exact date because I want to surprise my parents and friends but it’s just a few weeks away now. To be completely honest, I’m ready to go home. I love traveling and at some point I will likely be away much longer than this, but this is the first time I’ve been gone for such an extended period, and I know it will be nice to relax in the comfort of the familiar for a few weeks (before I get overwhelmingly bored and find myself on the move again). Here’s what I’m looking forward to the most after 7 months of living in Thailand and almost 4 months of traveling.

1. Being close to my family

I often remind myself how lucky I am to have such an awesome family that I genuinely like being around. Since my nearly 11 months away I’ve missed a wedding, a Thanksgiving and a Christmas and countless smaller family gatherings and these missed occasions have easily been the worst part about being away. It will be nice to be able to spend these rare yet valuable occasions with my close and extended family and to visit the people I’ve been missing and have been missing me.

2. Cooking

In Thailand I didn’t have a kitchen and hostel kitchens are where nightmares come from. Given this, I haven’t really had the chance to cook since I left the states all those months ago (with one or two mildly successful exceptions). Meanwhile I’ve been making an effort to try the different cuisines I’ve encountered and taking notes on how to recreate them at home. Needless to say I hope to put the kitchen to good use when I get back.

3. Food choices

So one of the rare times I did decide to try to cook on the road was in Serbia. I went to a fresh market and got some vegetables and I bought some rice and was on my way to a great Asian-inspired stir fry when I hit just a small snag. There was no proper soy sauce! I realized then that one of the many blessing of living in America was the access to foods and ingredients from all over the world. I really look forward to being able to choose from 20 different kinds of rice and 5 different soy sauces. I will have fun ordering pizza in the morning and having “Chinese food” for dinner. The sheer amount of choices was something I certainly took for granted before moving out of the states and I’ll be thrilled to have those choices again.

So close to being perfect

4. Being lazy

When you only have 3 days in an exciting city that could keep you occupied for months, it’s very difficult to justify just sitting around and doing nothing. So far on my travels I’ve had just 3 days I can remember where I gave myself a break and didn’t wander around taking in the sights or meeting new people. It’s been amazing and wonderful and I will miss simply following my feet and my instincts in an unfamiliar place, but at the same time I really do look forward to spending a few full days in my sweatpants walking no further than the refrigerator for a few relaxing days.

5. A little privacy

Hostels are great and all when you want to meet people and find other like-minded people who are always prepared for adventure, but it also gets old being woken by the drunk guys returning after a night out having to wait for a free shower at a crowded hostel. It will be nice to have a room with a door that can close without worrying about anyone else and a light I can turn off without someone turning it back on.

6. Wawa

If you’re reading this and you grew up with Wawa you will understand, if you didn’t then I won’t be able to explain it so I won’t even try.

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[…] finally approaching. In less than 2 weeks I will be back for an indefinite period and to be honest I’m really looking forward to the comforts of my own childhood home and my own bed for a little while. However, there are […]